The art of innovation: 3 lessons Zelensky teaches us

In addition to being a presentation coach, I am a day chairperson. For 20 years I have led conferences from Vancouver to Copenhagen. Recently I had another well-known "professional speaker" at a live conference. I saw him for the ^6th time. At the end of the day I was given his book. In the cover he wrote: "Rutger thanks for laughing at my same jokes for years". Witty but also painfully true: in all these years he had not changed a single letter in his story ...

It is the dilemma of many speakers. Do I regularly replace my old material or do I have a duty to give my audience my best material?

It's a dichotomy that comedians also have. American comedian George Carlin threw out all his old material every year while Jerry Seinfeld carefully alternated new jokes with old tested material. Seinfeld said of it: When the audience is completely new to me, my old material is also new. When some of my audience has seen me before, it's like I'm playing some old "hits" for them.

Zelensky faces the same challenge. His speeches are under a magnifying glass worldwide. So he will have to surprise every audience.

He spoke in the Bundestag, in the Knesset and before the U.S. Congress. Each time he had the same message: Give us more help! Yet each speech was different. What can we learn from Zelensky.

Let's start by noting that former actor Zelensky is an impactful speaker. He speaks in short sentences with lots of exclamation points. With his simple attire, he emphasizes the urgency of his story. The number of children killed is a regular element and his speeches are full of three-paragraphs.

3 observations:

1.Zelensky addresses his audience very directly

On March 1, the European Parliament had the honor of a maiden speech. There he said he could not greet his listeners with a "good morning, good afternoon or good evening, because the days are not good and for some it may even be the last day." The interpreter did not keep it dry. He asked the parliament to prove "that we are Europeans."

Leaders who do well in Zelensky's eyes are addressed by their first name ("Mark"), Chancellor Scholz, by the way, did not receive that treatment.

Watch Zelensky address Orban directly during his speech to the European Council here:

.Zelensky Makes Continuous References to National Cultural Heritage

In the U.S. Congress, he quoted the "Tear down this wall" speech Reagen gave in Berlin in 1987. In the British House of commons, he used quotes from Churchill " We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds....and even from Shakespeare. Recognition and approval then fell to him.

3. Zelensky continually emphasizes the shared experience or history he has with his audience.

In the Canadian parliament, he compared Edmonton's central square to the square in Kharkov and a nuclear power plant in Ontario to the one in Zaporizja. In Italy, he asked parliamentarians to imagine port city Genoa destroyed like Mariupol. In the Netherlands, he named the bombing of Rotterdam, the downing of flight MH17 and the expulsion of the Spaniards from Den Briel in 1572.

Is he successful with that strategy everywhere?

No, for part of the Knesset, the Jewish Zelensky shot through in his comparison to the Holocaust. "Inappropriate" was the measured reaction afterwards.

Renewing a speech gives new speaking pleasure. Getting to the top of a tall mountain is impressive, but telling about it 1,500 times in the same way is, if possible, even more impressive. Give yourself and your audience the pleasure of new angles and developed insights but most importantly, tailor each speech to the unique audience you have in front of you at that moment. Zelensky will do it for you.